Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisional multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
In some systems, devices can be configured in a continuous packet connectivity (CPC) mode to facilitate discontinuous transmit (DTX) by the devices such to limit checking of data presence for transmission and starting data transmission only during specific occasions to balance load and improve power consumption at the device. In current configurations, a media access control (MAC) DTX cycle can be defined for determining the pattern of time instances for starting transmission at the device along with a MAC inactivity threshold for determining an inactivity time after which the device can transmit in a next MAC DTX cycle. In addition, a network can configure certain subframes for the device during which hybrid automatic repeat/request (HARQ) communications can be transmitted. In this regard, it is possible that the configured subframes for HARQ communications conflict with the time instances for transmission as defined by the MAC DTX cycle and/or the MAC inactivity threshold, which may result in significant or possibly indefinite delay for a HARQ transmission. This, in turn, can result in dropped calls or other undesirable device behavior due to the network not receiving certain communications that are to be sent via the HARQ transmission.